The user journey: 6 tips for a strong homepage

Your reader’s purchase journey on your website starts on your homepage, because it’s typically the first thing your users see. Think of your bookstore homepage as if entering a physical bookshop. What do users see when they first walk in? What’s on the front table? What’s by the till?

Your online bookstore is a shop, so make that obvious. Generally, most of the recommendations come down to two key things:

1. Getting your books in front of users as soon and as often as possible.
2. Being extremely clear, all the time.

We have some specific thoughts on how to get into this user mindset from language to design and layout in this article about thinking like a user, but for now let’s break down the key recommendations. Think of this as homepage 101.

1. Sitewide banner

Your banner takes up a lot of visual real estate. This is your digital billboard. Use this space to spotlight lead titles, special collections, or communicate sales, for example. You should link to a URL (the associated product page, or collection, or ‘browse the sale’ area) and make the banner clickable. We suggest sticking to one simple message – as users, we lock onto the first thing we see, and ignore information our brain decides is supplementary or too overwhelming.

2. Curated product carousels

Don’t be afraid to fill your homepage with carousels. Hold the user’s hand and show them that browsing starts here. The first carousel is what’s called a “hero carousel,” because it’s in prime position. Make these carousels count and keep them fresh. Reward your visitors for returning regularly by ensuring that your site offers new curated experiences as regularly as you can.

3. Announcement bar

This is a useful space to relay important information across the site as users browse. This might simply be the fact that you have a sale, that you offer free shipping, or a way to give users a discount code easily. It could be that you have an important but disappointing message to convey e.g. that there are regions you briefly can’t ship to due to shipping regulations. This bar is versatile, but the unique thing about it is that it lingers as users browse, so use it to tell them something you don’t want them to ignore.

4. Email sign-up message

The homepage is always a great place to invite users into your community by prompting them to sign up to your email list. You could have this appear as a pop-up or as a static banner down the page (or even a combination of both). Try and build a compelling case for signing up. Maybe you can offer 10% off if users sign up to your list. At the very least, make sure to tell them the value you’ll give them: early access to content, special offers, regular recommendations into their inbox, interviews with authors.

5. Well-organised menu navigation

Your navigation menu should be frictionless and set up with your audience in mind – don’t clutter it with a million links. Links and pages that are a bit more technical or operational might sit better in the footer menu. Your header menu navigation should be like a map to your site, intuitive and guiding in its nature. As a bookstore, you should make it refreshingly easy for users to start browsing your books as quickly as possible. Make a “browse books” menu with your genres or subject areas. Take a look at pure bookstore websites that you think do this really well to guide you.

6. Cart

If you can, set up your site with a cart icon along the top menu so users can always find it. As they add items to their cart, it should reflect the number. This is a workflow that we find optimal at Glassboxx as we provide publishers with eCommerce solutions, because it allows users to add items to cart without leaving the product page. We want to give users the autonomy to choose when to enter the cart and ultimately the checkout, and stretch out their ‘browsing time’. Often, add-to-cart buttons take users straight to the cart, which is fine, but why clip the users browsing session short?